Peace Prize winners seek end to sexual violence during wars

OSLO, Norway — Raped after being forced into sexual slavery by the Islamic State group, Iraqi Nadia Murad did not succumb to shame or despair — she spoke out.

Surgeon Denis Mukwege treated countless victims of sexual violence in war-torn Congo and told the world of their suffering.

Together, they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for drawing attention to how rape and sexual abuse are used as weapons of war.

The award “is partly to highlight the awareness of sexual violence. But the further purpose of this is that nations take responsibility, that communities take responsibility and that the international community take responsibility,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that bestowed the $1.01 million prize.

“Dear survivors from all over the world, I would like to tell you that, through this Nobel Prize, the world is listening to you and refusing indifference,” Mukwege, 63, told a news conference outside the hospital he founded in Bukavu in eastern Congo, where he has treated tens of thousands of victims — among them “women, teenage girls, small girls, babies,” he said Friday.

“The world refuses to remain idle with arms crossed facing your suffering. We hope that the world will not put off acting with force and determination in your favor, because the survival of humanity depends on you.”

Many of the women treated by Mukwege were victims of mass rape in the central African nation that has been wracked by conflict for decades. Armed men tried to kill him in 2012, forcing him to temporarily leave the country.